


Space and Time

by Misguidedghostwriter



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Happy, No shipping, Pretty cute, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Sad, Sibling Banter, Sibling Bonding, Time Travel, Vanya goes on a little adventure, diego's stuttering, they're 10, they're too young
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 04:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18275558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misguidedghostwriter/pseuds/Misguidedghostwriter
Summary: Five reset the timeline, and they're all 10 year olds again. Yay! But there's an issue with Vanya...they can't actually find her. Oops.Meanwhile, Vanya goes on an adventure! Hope she doesn't destroy the world while she's away, but we'll just have to see.





	Space and Time

Vanya began the oddest day of her life when the clock rolled over to midnight and she still couldn’t sleep.

She had had that dream again, the one with the grey walls. She remembered clearly the cold lack of sound. Her body had felt unbalanced, like the sound had been supporting her, and now there was nothing. She remembered being scared. She remembered being unheard. She remembered being invisible. She remembered wanting to die.

Midnight passed into 1am, then two, and then a blur of the wee hours of the morning. The sky outside shifted from black, to deep blue, to light blue, then, just when it seemed like it would be a sunny day, the sun was eaten by grey clouds.

Pogo’s voice echoed through the hallway outside her room, “Alright children, wake up, we have a mission this morning! Your father requests your presence at the table!”

There was the usual scuttle. There was yelling over the bathrooms, there was name calling, and there was laughing.

Although Vanya wouldn’t be going on any missions, she knew she had to get up too. She dressed in her academy outfit and her mask. She picked up her violin and walked, head held high, down to the breakfast table. She stood behind her chair, set her violin on the floor and waited.

Eventually the other kids filed into the dining room.

Vanya took in everyone with silent eyes.

Klaus was telling Diego a loud and ridiculous story about how a ghost had died. Diego was hanging onto every word and Luther was interrupting constantly, declaring every sentence of the tale to be a lie.

Ben was giggling at Luther’s anger.

Five looked absolutely pissed, and glared at the floor, but didn't give a reason as to why.

Allison was doing her makeup in a compact. She wasn’t very good at it and had really only managed to smudge some blush onto her cheekbones and put on lipstick unevenly.

Klaus reached a particularly dramatic point in his story and held out his arms, his voice filled the air. “And, betrayed, the poor man climbed to the tallest wall in the castle, and declared ‘If I can’t have her, then I will not live!’ He stabbed himself with his dagger and fell off the wall." Klaus mimicked stabbing Luther in the stomach. "And that’s how he died. He won’t shut up about that knife wound though! Yes, you got the blade through your ribs, that’s VERY impressive.” He rolled his eyes.

“You can’t stab through your own ribs.” Luther grunted. “Not unless you’re me that is.” He flexed his arms.

“Y-“ came Diego’s little voice “y-y-l-oo-oo-k likea like ah dumbass.”

“Ya, well you talk like one.” Luther shot back cooly.

“Be nice!” Allison hissed, “You’ll never get a girlfriend if you’re mean.”

“Who says he’ll want a girlfriend?” Klaus laughed back.

“Shut up, stupid head.”

“Wow, you’re just pulling out all the best insults today. I feel so attacked.”

Ben and Diego roared with laughter.

“Would you all just shut up,” Five grumped. “and tell me, which one of you idiots took my spiderman?”

“Oh, your doll?” Alison laughed. “Threw it in the trash.” She crossed her arms and grinned. “He’s dead now.”

“He’s an action figure and I will kill you!”

Luther was laughing now too.

Ben gasped for air, trying to stop laughing ;and once he could breathe said “I saw your spiderman toy outside. You left him in the bushes while we were playing cops and robbers.

Five nodded seriously and disappeared in a flash of light, returning soon after with his spiderman action figure. He nodded to Ben. “I owe you one wish.” He declared. “Don’t waste it.”

Ben gave a salute.

“That was a bad salute.” Klaus tisked. “You have to do it like this.” Klaus made a middle finger and saluted Five.

“I hate you.” Five hissed.

“Would you rather I curtsy?” Klaus asked in a British accent.

The bickering continued like that, with the kids lounging about in the dining room. None of them paid attention to their watching sister.

Grace entered the room. She smiled at the children and went to stand behind her own chair. The children followed suit. Five sat his spiderman doll down and hurried to his place. 

They were quite striking, Vanya thought, all of them standing around the table with their masks and uniforms. It was very official and orderly. Or, it would be if her siblings would stop making faces at each other. Vanya thought maybe she should make a face too, but couldn't bring herself to. Maybe next time.

Soon after, a stern looking man with a monocle arrived, and his children went silent.

Reginald sat at the head of the table, and each of the children sat after him.

A couple of maids swept into the great dining hall. They served Reginald first, then each of the children by number. Most of the kids resumed talking at this point. Vanya remained silent, just watching.

When her food was finally set in front of her-oatmeal with apple slices and cinnamon-she began eating at a quick, but ladylike, pace. She had to get as much down as she could before-

“Right children, it’s time for a rundown on today’s mission. Number Seven, if you would.

Vanya didn’t dare to frown. “Yes father.” She opened her violin case, got her instrument, and walked to the head of the table, standing at her father’s right-hand side. She began to play.

Reginald, as he did every morning when there was a mission planned, explained to the background hum of Vanya’s music.

Vanya didn't listen to the rundown. She was working on a new piece. It was about nature. She invoked through music the wind, and babbling streams, and chirping birds. The sound of open air, and freedom, and peace hung in the room. But it was a very sad sound. It wasn’t at peace, it was longing for it. Anyone who was really listening would hear; ‘I want to be free. I want to be happy. But I’m not.’

No one in the room was listening. She was just there, in the background, as always.

When Vanya finished her song, the other children were already leaving.

Vanya returned to her chair and finished her now cold oatmeal.

The house was empty soon, and the child was left alone. Well, more alone than usual. But for once she was okay with it. She was excited, actually. Her music instructor had given her a really fun challenge. She had told Vanya to go on a walk and record sounds on a tape recorder, then to use those sounds as inspiration for music. This gave Vanya an excuse to sneak off to her hideaway.

A few weeks back, she had gone exploring down a wooded trail about a mile from her home. There she had found an old playground partially overgrown with weeds and blackberry bushes. Teenagers from local schools went there to party at night, but during the day, it was pretty empty. Vanya had been going there to loiter and generally goof off whenever she got the chance. There were no cameras there, and no noisy siblings, and no stern father hovering over her.

She could just be alone with her music.

She loaded up on snacks in the kitchen. She grabbed a couple of Diego’s double-chocolate chip protein bars. She rarely took sweets from her siblings, but she always got away with it when she did. Her siblings never really thought about her at all, so they never pointed fingers at her when snacks went missing. She was invisible. Every now and then, Vanya would take advantage of that.

Vanya told Grace that she was off to do a song writing project. Grace patted her on the head and gave Vanya a water bottle and some apple slices to go with her junk food.

“I think,” Vanya said, sipping at the water, “that I should stop by the music store and pick up some rosin for my bow. Can I have some money?”

“Oh, absolutely.” Grace smiled and opened her purse, handing Vanya a $20.

Both her and Grace knew rosin was pretty cheap. It ran from a couple bucks, to $10 for the high end stuff. But Grace liked to spoil when she could. “Thanks mom.” Vanya put the money and snacks in her backpack along with her notepad, pens, a book (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) her tape recorder, and a change of clothes. She shouldered her violin, and ventured off into the world. 

Once she was out of sight, she began a quest to find the nearest restroom. Said restroom was in a restaurant, and Vanya had to buy something to use it. She decided on honeydew bubble tea. While her tea was being made, she went into the bathroom and changed. She pulled on a pair of plain jeans and a pink t-shirt with a peace sign on it. She looked at herself in the mirror, and she grinned wider than she had in a long time.

The person staring back at her was not Number Seven, the ever lurking, quiet violinist who did the bidding of her evil step siblings. No. That girl was Vanya, a kid who wasn’t normal, or ordinary. She had the whole world in front of her and could do whatever she wanted. She was free. For a few hours at least.

She left the bathroom and went to get her bubble tea. Vanya thought the bright green drink looked a touch like radioactive sludge and pretended that the tea had come from a nuclear power plant, and it would give her real super powers. However, when she finished the tea, nothing seemed to happen.

The child left the restaurant and continued on her way. At one point she found a stick on the ground and started waving it around. First it was a magic wand, then a sword, then a drumstick. The walk to the park, including stops, took about forty minutes.

She found the trail, and wandered down it. The park was nestled in a clearing. She couldn’t see the road from there, it was just trees and grass and litter. She sat criss cross on a metal slide that was embedded into the side of a hill. That’s when it happened. In a second, she lived an entire life.

She lived a childhood of abuse. She lost Five. She lost Ben. She watched Klaus break down. She wrote a book. Her family finally saw her and they hated her. Reginald died. Five came back. She dated a man. She lost her virginity. She found out she had powers. She hurt her sister. She killed the man she had dated. She was shaken, and scarred, and she reached out to her family for help. Instead of help, she was locked in the nightmare room. And after that…nothing. That's where the memories ended.

But she had no time to dwell on any of this. Vanya’s body felt like she had been beaten in by a rock. All of her mussels went slack and she slumped, and slid down the slide. Before she lost consciousness, however, a funny thought found her. She had powers now. The radioactive bubble tea had worked.

If only it hadn’t taken fifteen years.

**Author's Note:**

> Sibling banter is so cute to write!
> 
> Also, please leave a comment below! I'm open to any praise or criticism you want to throw at me.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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